On why you need to keep on writing *especially* when you don’t have time

“I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast.
And when I run I feel His pleasure.”
~ Eric Liddell, Gold Medalist, 1924 Paris Olympics

I can’t cook. I can’t paint. I can’t sculpt. I can barely decorate my house. But when I write I feel a sense of purpose that keeps me up later than my contact lenses can usually stand.

My mom was 42 when she died. She was always going to write a book. And today I imagine what it would be like to have her words with me still. She was a lover of stories and my overcrowded, dog-eared, paper pages and hardback covers, stuffed three deep book shelf testifies to the many I inherited from her. Stories from the wide world over but none of them hers.

She would sit long hours with a bottle of coke, bag of chips and a computer screen writing words for work and for church and the letters home that she loved. But none of them found their way into a story that was hers alone. My hands are hungry for those pages. And as I try to find my way into a grown up understanding of the mother who left me while I was still a child, I scour through old letters to follow the trail of her words into the heart of who she was, beyond the role of mother.

Words are a road map for those who come behind.

To write is to give. To be flat out, all out generous with your story. To wrap up your words, your life, your failings, your most miserable moments and your wild and wonderful discoveries and give them to somebody else. To share them with someone, to encourage someone, to re-gift what have been the hardest parts of your story in ways that make other people feel they are not alone.

To write is to pour out your life as a love offering for people you may never meet, because when you do so you feel God’s pleasure in your fingertips.

And maybe you were made for this time and these keyboard letters to leave a legacy. Maybe you were made to connect a family. Maybe you were made to tell the story of someone who can’t. Maybe what you whisper over your kids at night or dream in the dark hours, or doodle in your head while waiting in the car pool line is essential to somebody else.

Maybe when you write it down you will discover not only your own pleasure, but the pleasure of the God who gives you the words, the prompting and the message.

Run with it, my friend. Forget the doubts and the reasons why you think you can’t. Don’t look back – run with abandon like you used to when you were just six and discovering the joy of your own strength.

Run like you used to when you believed you could fly.

Feel the wild wind of freedom as you pour yourself out onto the page and press on and into the God who created this gift in you.

Because what you write is a gift to me.

A gift to all who discover and read and find they have a friend, a challenge, a comfort in you.

::

I love that you read my words. Thank you.
Can I offer them by email? It’s easy and free{just enter email address}Delivered byPin It

Lately, I’ve been reading/hearing a lot of advice about how I need to identify my blog’s focus. Often I write about things I’m learning, but sometimes I just like to stop and tell an old family story. My kids have been telling me how much they’ve appreciated learning quirky little things about their family history, so I think I’ll probably keep writing them. Even if I’m not being terribly focused.

thegypsymama
on February 22, 2012 at 9:56 am

Oh I LOVE the ideas of sharing quirky family stories – those are a GIFT to everyone. I wish we had a book ol’ book of those for our family!

thankyouthankyouthankyou :-) Sometimes, because of all the things that are SO important, I feel like the blog/writing- which I do for fun/relaxation- is not worth the time it takes.
thank you for the reminder.

Oh so true. My grandfather was full of stories. Always telling them to his adult children (all 10 of them), but none took the time to write them down. And now, his grandchildren are disconnected from the grandfather they didn’t have time to get to know.

Thinking of him and reading your post has inspired me to get my family’s stories (mostly from my mother because she spent the most time with my grandfather as he was dying) down on paper before another generation is lost to the history and wonderment of our story.

It really comes down to the connect and the disconnect, doesn’t it? It’s all about the connect. Thank you.

Thank you so much for this. I really needed it and it was encouraging. I know I am supposed to write a book. I have known for at least 10 years and have put it off for ten years. I have scores of people waiting to read it who would pre order a copy if they could. But still I drag my feet and procrastinate and just never start the blasted book. My creator gave me a story to tell. My story is the kind of story you watch on the big screen b/c it can’t possibly be real. This summer I have purposed in my heart to write the story, to stop letting it’s enormity overwhelm and intimidate me, to stop finding other things to distract me from writing. I am almost 40 years old and I need to leave this story behind for others b/c He did so much to write this story into my journey.
Sorry that was so long, but thank you again.

Thank you for sharing your tender gift with us! I have felt blessed and challenged many a time by your words! The main purpose of my blog, after updating family and a few friends, is that I compile posts from the year or a season of our life adventures into a blogbook through blurb.com, as I am not a scrapper, and this suffices for family memories very well! Hope it blesses my wee ones someday too! Thanks for the challenge to keep on! Oh happy day to you sister!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you. This was an answer to prayer! {Really, it was.}

Melissa Morgner
on February 22, 2012 at 10:30 am

I SO needed to hear this! Somehow, I’ve made writing oppositional to being a mom. Like I must chose. I fear pouring myself into writing for fear I will be left with less for those I love, but really, those words fills me to give more.

I also think blogging can get in the way of writing. All those thoughts about platform and social media and niches can clog the creative flow.

I love your heart to encourage the writer in all the mamas! And bless you for sharing the story of your mom. I’m close to her age and the very thought of leaving no words behind hits very close to home.

Very nice. I enjoy reading but I don’t write. Never have kept a journal for very long and I have no idea how to be as creative with words and writing as some people are. But you can not do everything. I have much else that keeps me busy.

You don’t cook? Seriously? I find it amazing that any mom could not know how to cook.

I cook, garden, sew for myself and other people, have a baby girl and a husband. There is hardly time for me to read let a lone write anything. This just confirms in my thinking that there is no way to take on writing when I have so much else going on.

thegypsymama
on February 22, 2012 at 10:43 pm

Sounds to me you cook with the wild abandon and love that I write – see, you’re doing. You’re pouring yourself into the ones who eat it up. I do it on paper. You do it on a plate. That we both don’t hold back – that’s the thing I think. That we pour it all out in the unique ways we’re gifted.

So well said! I have found that the more I write, the more I remember, the more I want to share. I very often find that folks will believe they don’t have anything of interest to share, but they do: themselves, their experiences.
My gram wrote 3 family histories, and they are treasured by us for the story they tell that began in Scotland over a century ago.
Just as you said: It’s a roadmap of those who come behind.

Oh, Lisa-Jo… I am reduced to a pile of tears as I read this. Tears for frustration at not finding the time, not making the time to do what my soul needs to do. Tears at all the words and emotions cramped up in my brain that need to be released, the ones that have come scarce lately in the face of my calendar… of work and laundry and parenting and all the other makings of a too-busy life, but my wrist blazes with the tattoo I had seared onto me for this purpose. My tattoo says, “Write” to remind me that this is what I’ve been given, that this is the tool He has given me and I ought not neglect it. Self-doubt has had its way with me and my story is gathering dust day by day. Thanks for the reminder that I have breath for blowing the dust away, and that if I make the time, I have words to make all the difference God has equipped me to make in this wide world.

This is perfect – thank you! “To write is to give.” “To write is to pour out your life as a love offering.” Too often, I feel guilty for the time I take to write. This is my new theme song, that glorious Chariots of Fire music playing in the background. I can see Eric’s face, his head thrown back, his arms flailing, his feet skimming the ground like he was flying into the “wild wind of freedom.” Yes!

I have always allowed fear of rejection and perhaps laziness to steal my motivation to write. My recent blog touches on this a bit (El Roi)…how my life might be more important than I think…I need to write my story. I have 26 pages written. But, I get stumped. Thank you for inspiring me!! My mom died at the age of 54 and she was a lover of stories too. I plan to illustrate a children’s story she wrote from a real life experience. Pray I do…it would be my greatest tribute to her. You are a friend to me even though we haven’t met.

Okay now, wait a minute. Have you been climbing around inside my head? You seem to have a knack for that and it’s downright scary sometimes! Thank you. My little 3 day break from facebook and blogging has helped me to settle down, release the discouragement and tackle this writing thing head-on. In fact, I am crazy enough to commit to a daily reflection during Lent. Yikes. But I’m finding a bit of a groove with it – I had forgotten how much I love to reflect on scripture and tie it to life. And I won’t be at all surprised if some of these small devotionals include some story-telling as well. At any rate, I’m writing every day and that is the goal, right?? Make the time, right?? Take the time, right?? Goodness, I hope so. (And I wish you had your mom’s stories, too. I really do. The letters might help if you could collect them in one place.)

What Holley said, and (because I’m always far too wordy) to tell you that your words so beautifully meet women right where they are. They take flight and land in hearts and lives hungry for encouragement and understanding. You are a gift Lisa-Jo.

You speak my mind and that is the exact reason why I write and blog. I find it the best thing to do for running away from life and giving time for myself. In the same time, I can inspire someone and bring hope to their life.

This post brought tears to my eyes. My mother passed suddenly right after her 50th birthday. I am a writer but she wasn’t. I often long to hear her words in my head again. I have some notebooks and old letters she wrote in but it isn’t much. There are many days that I need to understand something about myself, my past, my memories. I can’t just go ask her. I miss her and still need any wisdom she could have offered me.

I write a journal to each of my four kids and have since before they were born. I also try hard to keep up on my own. I ask each of your readers to write something to your children at least telling them about themselves as you see them. you will be leaving a priceless treasure long after you are gone from this world.

Anna
on February 22, 2012 at 2:08 pm

Thank you. I am writing now what is really my testimony and I was tired today and thinking maybe the style I write in isn’t interesting enough. But whatever it is a gift to give and I think Paul didn’t rely on his eloquence, he just kept sharing the message. Grateful for this, will print it out and put it up. X

Thank you. I haven’t been able to write lately; for a long time … and of late I’ve been getting the unction to just write … to just do it. This is confirmation that God is speaking those urgings (not that I didn’t already know this). Thank you.
Blessings,
A.

Angela Smith
on February 22, 2012 at 3:15 pm

I was finally convinced by a friend that I am meant to write. And I really do love writing! But working fulltime, being mom to 4 young children & being a Pastor’s Wife/Womens’ Ministry Director has left me struggling to find the time/energy to write. and yet I feel like a part of me has died when I gave up the struggle about 1 month ago!! thanks for sharing this here & I am going to work to create writing time again!

Wow! Thank you so much for this. You have no idea how much I needed to read it today. When things get busy the first thing that tends to get cut from my schedule is my writing. You have opened a new way of thinking of it to me. And that means so much to me. And I must admit that when I release the thoughts and concepts that are simmering in my mind and heart onto the screen, I feel calmer and more at peace afterward. Again, thank you for this. I really appreciate your insight!

There is a fog in my brain. The last two years have been hard. Not horrific (as I started to write) … just hard. Unemployment, financial strain, employment in new town (for my husband), house on the market, single mom-ness for me 200 miles away trying to get 2 teens all the places they are supposed to be while keeping the house “market ready” and maintain sanity, etc. Then the move, of course, dragging teens where they don’t wish to be, to a place I don’t really wish to be, more financial strain. Now we are about the “settling in” business and I am just weary. Bone-tired weary and I absolutely, 100% do not want to write. Yet I see my chicks ooching closer and closer to the edge of my nest. And, yes, this week the father of one of their friends passed away. Weeks ago one of their 16 year old friends passed away. We aren’t guaranteed another moment. May I write.

Alanna
on February 22, 2012 at 3:51 pm

I so needed to hear this today…. every single word of it. Thank you. Keep writing!

Sharon O
on February 22, 2012 at 3:52 pm

I write for others to get encouraged and for the purpose of discipline for myself and most of all for a legacy for our children. After discovering blog 2 print I was able to put my 2010 blogs and also my 2011 blogs into two different books so they are real and tangible and in the hands of others who would someday enjoy them.
It is a gift I can give as long as I am alive and able to write with a purpose.

Wow – this hit home! (Thanks for sharing this on FB Denise!) My mother died at age 62, had her first stroke at age 59 and before that always wanted to write a book. I have just the past several months decided that above all I want to be a writer, not just a writer, but a novelist, author. I am GOING FOR IT! :) Thanks for the encouragement.

My husband heard my sadness today as I told.him there were.no more stories left for me to write. I was overwhelmed with deadlines and the daily tasks and have lost my vision. I will wait on the Lord. Thank You friend. Thank you.

Lisa-Jo, Thank you for being an open vessel for sharing the words God gives you. I love how He works through these words and the pages on the screen and on paper. It never ceases to amaze me how He works and encourages us in the right time, through others. You have encouraged me…Thank you.

What a great post. With three kids under five, I rarely sit down to write a blog post before midnight, and I always think to myself, “This is ridiculous. I should be sleeping and getting rested up for tomorrow’s challenges instead of sitting in front of this computer.” Thank you for the encouragement to keep on keeeping on with the writing and the stories no matter how insignificant it can sometimes seem.

thegypsymama
on February 22, 2012 at 10:49 pm

You and me both, sister. I write in the midnight hour. Always. We can keep each other company :)

Thank you for sharing, your heart. I have always loved writing, and recently began blogging for my daughters to have a record they can read and reread and treasure for years! I titled my blog Journal of Grace because I want my blog to be a journal of the grace of God in my life and all He is teaching me.

Stacey
on February 22, 2012 at 11:53 pm

I love and adore the gift of words you give every day. If you were here, I’d buy you cheesecake. And some for me.

I remind myself why I write and who I write to… I want to leave my children “our ” stories… I want them to remember. I want to be sure it gives a glimpse of God’s glory… I want that to always be remembered…

I want it to encourage someone somewhere that they too are part of the big story that God treasures in His big Abba heart…

THANK YOU! How many times have I felt what I have to say is nada? Yet something always prompts me to say it. Even the smallest things can make the biggest impact, especially over time! Thank you for this great encouragement!

I’m so sorry to learn about your mother, Lisa Jo. I can only imagine just how proud she would be of you.

I’ve been nursing a desire to write about motherhood for years — and I’ve done so in small capacities: emails to friends, journal entries, Word documents just for myself, and then more recently through my blog.

Last fall, I signed a book contract — my first — for a book called Then I Became a Mother that will be come out this upcoming fall. It’s simultaneously daunting and invigorating, but it stems from one central and simple desire: to tell my story in a way that will encourage others.

Sweet sister, you could not have known how much I needed these words today. My bleary-eyed midnight ramblings may never draw the applause of the masses, but they are cathartic for me and never fail to draw the attention of the One who gave me the words. Thank you for penning the song of my heart today.

This post made me feel like crying all the way through. I know. I’m weird. Doing this, writing my story, is something that has been on my mind for a very long time. I know that “can’t never could” but I feel like I can’t. I feel like I don’t even know my own story and the parts that I can remember are too ugly to share with anybody.

The more that I work on my family history, the more I wish I could find journals written by those that have gone on before me…but as far as I know, none exist. I don’t want that to be the same discovery for those that come after me. I want to exist…but I don’t know how to tell the good, the bad, and the ugly without causing others pain. How do you share the real you without sharing what made you the real you and not hurt others in the process when the making of you contained so much ugliness?

Thank you for this post. I am more determined now to do this, but still very much struggling with the how.

That quote from Eric Liddell is one of my favorites. And you have shared some beautiful words here, Lisa Jo.

To write is to share your soul, searching for words to portray eternal truths. To write is to slow down, taking the time to give meaning to feeling. Writing is what I love, what I teach, and what I want to spend the rest of my life sharing.

Those Eric Liddell words, how often I have thought of them in connection with my writing. I have written down goals. But TODAY….when I read this today…I needed this encouragement. What a true picture of your own advice — what you wrote today, I needed to hear. Thank you.

I always loved that quote, and I use it often when talking about writing as a purpose.

D7

Heidi Leonard
on March 30, 2012 at 12:56 pm

oh my, can i ever relate. :)

i’m a lover of stories as well in multitudes of forms (books, movies, blogs, testimonies, you name it)!

i used to think it strange that i felt/feel such a strong urge to *share* my story – like, am i feeling too high of myself thinking that someone might be interested in my perspective/random reflections.

your exhortations here, they comfort me and give me new found freedom and perhaps a little ounce of personal purpose as i continue to mull over in my current season of life.

i began blogging before i even knew how BIG it was.

first – like so many, as a way to chronicle life for long distance friend/family to keep up with our wanderings

i then began a space just for me (still not knowing about the VAST array of others similar to what i had in mind even existed) that space grew/changed/evolved over time and then…

i began a business (that i had been planning for YEARS and finally found myself in a season in which all those plans could finally come together) i blog as part of that business and yet…

i began to miss/yearn for that space to share my story/impressions/reflections even if it be on a somewhat ‘random’ nature – ;)

and so, i’ve created a new and fresh space…we’ll see where it takes me.